Publication details
Recent recovery of acid damaged macroinvertebrate assemblages in the Bohemian Forest lakes.
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| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| Citation | |
| Description | Acidification of the Bohemian Forest lakes caused by sulphate and nitrate deposition between the 1950s and 1980s strongly affected benthic and pelagic assemblages of macroinvertebrates. Lake water acidification peaked in the mid-1980s and, along with substantial decrease in acid deposition, has been reversing since then. Chemical recovery of lakes exhibits typical changes in water chemistry, such as a decrease in concentrations of strong acid anions, base cations and aluminium, followed by an increase in pH, acid neutralising capacity and concentration of dissolved organic carbon. However, continuing adverse effects of aluminium delayed the biological recovery for at least a decade and recent assemblages still suffer from acid stress. First signs of biological recovery included colonisation by vagile species, reappearance of some indigenous or acid-sensitive species and decline in abundances of eurytopic acid-tolerant species. This study focuses on eight natural lakes of glacial origin on the Czech side (5) and the German side (3) of the Bohemian Forest. We compare biological recovery of two types of lakes – four partly recovered low-aluminium lakes and four acidic high-aluminium lakes. The main aim is to explore compositional changes of macroinvertebrate assemblages in response to recent changes in lake water chemistry between 2010 and 2015. We also compare recent species richness of aquatic insects to that observed in 1999–2007. |